The Avant/Garde Diaries is a new video blog, a sort of digital interview magazine with the aim of portraying the international avant-garde that was initiated by Mercedes-Benz. To celebrate its launch the German car manufacturer from Stuttgart organised a three-day festival curated by none other than Raf Simons.
The name of the Jil Sander creative director alone was sure to have aroused curiosity and interest amongst the fashion and design disciples who made the pilgrimage to the BCC (Berliner Congress Center) at Alexanderplatz in the German capital between 15 and 17 July 2011.
As well as art installations the line-up of events put together by Simons also included films, plus a symposium on the subject of pop culture and live performances by musicians like These New Puritans, Fischerspooner and DJ Hell in the evening.
The festival is over – but the blog lives on. Short, elaborately produced video portraits will be presented in the future, showing personalities from the worlds of fashion, film, music and mobility and the fellow creatives who inspire them.
One of the first names to be featured on the blog is German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic. During the festival Grcic presented his ‘Avus for Plank’ armchair (which, incidentally, makes clear references to the form and materials used in automobile design). Viewers can admire more of his creations and hear his personal response to the question of who or what ‘avant-garde’ actually is: “Avant-garde means something that is ahead of its time,” he says. With this statement the designer is alluding to the original meaning of the French term, ‘protagonist of an idea or direction’, which is commonly used in conjunction with art and culture.
So it’s definitely worth paying a virtual visit to the The Avant/Garde Diaries blog now and again. As well as the regularly uploaded videos it will also feature news about upcoming festivals by The Avant/Garde Diaries, which Mercedes-Benz, together with further noteworthy curators, hopes to bring to more metropolises around the world.
The concept A-Class by Mercedes-Benz was also presented during The Avant/Garde Diaries-Festival.
